Search form

Search form

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will use the occasion of this week's nuclear security summit to call on world leaders to gather in support of efforts to ban the production of fissile materials for use in nuclear weapons. The UN Conference on Disarmament has been considering a ban, but negotiations have been blocked by security concerns from Pakistan.

Related Summaries

Few people expect the assembly of the Conference on Disarmament during the UN General Assembly convention in New York to produce an actionable breakthrough on nuclear disarmament. Though the CD secured treaties banning biological and chemical weapons in the 1970s, over the past decade it has not been able to reach consensus on the direction of nuclear disarmament -- with Pakistan blocking an effort to stop the production of highly enriched uranium and plutonium, fissile materials used for nuclear weapons.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani told U.S. President Barack Obama that Pakistan had adequate safeguards in place to protect its nuclear stockpile, despite a study that says Pakistan's nuclear arsenal "faces a greater threat from Islamic extremists seeking nuclear weapons than any other nuclear stockpile on earth."

Radio station owners in Mogadishu are complying with a ban on music ordered by militant group Hizbul-Islam over fears violent reprisals if they refuse. Somalia's government remains unable to maintain control over more than a sliver of the capital.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad issued a letter to the UN calling for a fact-finding team to conduct an investigation into the goals and intents of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which he says have only harmed people in the region. Iran has accused Pakistan, the U.K. and the U.S. of backing Jundollah, a Sunni Islamist network that Iran links to al-Qaida. The office of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon received the letter but did not offer comment.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will push world leaders to endorse complete nuclear disarmament at an upcoming summit in Washington, D.C. Ban believes a new agreement between Russia and the U.S. to reduce nuclear stockpiles and new limitations of nuclear weapon use by U.S. President Barack Obama will help pave the way.